We Have Video!!

Tuesday was a therapy day and again, therapy was great. Trish did a lot of the same things, working on movement in her legs and also on balance. We finally got a camera cable (thanks Mom!) so you can see some examples of the movements we have been seeing!


Here is Trish working on sitting up straight using her arms as little as possible. This is hard to do with limited abs and back muscles. She looks great!


Here are some video clips of Trish moving her legs in different directions. In all of the exercises she is concentrating extremely hard on the movement they are asking her to do. It is very important that her brain make the connection to the movement that they are working on. They spend a lot of time explaining what the movement is and what muscle she needs to concentrate on to make it move. This is all very challenging considering she hasn't thought about these movements for over 2 years! She tries very hard to keep her arms in close to her so she doesn't use them. She is also trying to use as little of her upper body as possible.

The clip below shows the therapist adding some resistance for the first time. The therapists have been very impressed with Trish's effort, attitude, determination, and progress! Of course I am impressed too, but by now I have come to expect it!

Also today, they had Trish stand up for the first time here! Trish has stood using a standing frame before, but the frame provides a lot of support and Trish really doesn’t need to work to stand up. In therapy today they had her stand using a basic frame with nothing supporting her front or back. The only support was two therapists keeping her legs locked! They also had her practice shifting her weight from side to side. They would also unlock one of her knees and she would bring it back into the locked position. It was very impressive and took a lot out of her.

You can tell by the serious look on her face in the picture below how hard she has to concentrate to hold a standing position. It sure is great to be able to see her stand tall again!


Later that night a few of the “stemmies” felt good enough to meet up. Stemmies is the name that they have given those down here for stem cell treatment. We were excited because it was really our first night out since we have been here. We met up for drinks (no alcohol for the stemmies as it could affect the stem cells) and some good conversation then onto the restaurant for a nice Italian dinner. It was great to get out!

Here we are. It is also great to see all the family support for all the people down here getting treatment. What a great group of people we are meeting.